Saturday, October 9, 2010

To Wordpress or Not to Wordpress . . . ?

That's the question that's been on my mind for a couple of weeks. I tested out Wordpress and, as a Hoopcamp friend said, it's pretty slick. But the transfer from Blogger to Wordpress might not be as slick and easy, which makes me pause. Is there really enough to be gained?

So I thought I'd ask you, fabulous readers. Many (if not all) of you are seasoned bloggers. What's your take? Which would you choose -- Blogger or Wordpress -- and why?

And, for those who may be interested, here are a few useful links I turned up regarding swapping Blogger for Wordpress:

7 comments:

hey beth,i like wordpress, but have not tried blogger so i cannot compare. my only gripe with wordpress is no flash or fancy widgets are supported/allowed unless you host your own site. ive been considering moving to wordpress.org so i can get those features...but the transfer headaches too...yuck.with the wordpress hosting, i guess im not thrilled with the templates offered. it is pretty limited, but again, ive heard good things about the self-host with wordpress software. thats all i know! :)

I transferred my whole blog from blogger to wordpress self-hosted without a problem, photos, comments and all. I find wordpress a little less user friendly but once you get used to it it has so many better features.

I would say Blogger is better, UNLESS you know how to take full benefit of Wordpress hosted on your own. Then Wordpress might be more beneficial. BUT, for basic blogging, I don't know how necessary it is to host it yourself and have all types of custom stuff on it - on Blogger, with the new templates, you can do so much now.My blog is on Blogger, but I have another project with Wordpress.org, and without too much coding etc. skills, I can't do anything fancy with it anyway. It's much easier to change fonts, for example, with Blogger, add widgets, pics to sidebars, and have more variety in general. My 2c: "Stay where you are." LOL

One more thing, I don't know how easy it is to follow a blog on Wordpress - Google Friend Connect works there too? I don't know. But I never end up following any Wordpress blogs because I don't know how this whole "RSS" thing works, and I'm probably not the only one. Or maybe I am. Anyhow, just a thought.

I've asked the same question elsewhere, and while some people have said Wordpress is considered more "professional" for writers wanting the make a career with their words, no one has been able to give me a concrete reason for switching. I've decided to stay with Blogger for the time being. I'm bad enough about rearranging the furniture in my life offline - I just don't want to tackle rearranging my online "house" too. ;)

Hey, Beth!I found you via Melissa's blog. We're both Wordpress girls - I know she switched from blogger, so she might have more to say on the comparison. As someone who has been with Wordpress since I started blogging, I must say: I LOVE IT!! I've never had any trouble figuring out how to use any of its features. The stats are thorough (and pretty), and everything is well-organized. Then again, I don't know what Blogger is like.@Bhakti - It's funny you mention it being "hard to follow Wordpress blogs" - I've always felt the same way about following Blogger blogs! :) It's easy for Wordpress people to follow other Wordpress people - there's a built-in place where you can get those blogs in a feed. As for non-Wordpress bloggers following Wordpress blogs: there's a "subscribe by email" option. It's easy to install, and easy to sign up for. Mine's in my sidebar, for example.Mainly, I just use Twitter to keep up with people. :)Anyway. I like it, but it doesn't sound like fun to completely uproot yourself. :)Kayla

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“I understood that writing was this: an impulse to share with other people a feeling or truth that I myself had. Not to preach to them, but to give it to them if they cared to hear it.” ― Brenda Ueland